Saturday, January 26, 2008

Logistics

America is full of pragmatists, and well, I guess along with other things, I am pragmatic too. So, in the spirit of American pragmatism, this writing is going to be about BILLS.

Why? Because since I moved into my new house, my electricity bill has doubled. We are running around like dervishes turning off lights, closing fireplace dampers, closing doors, turning off fans, reducing the amount of appliance use, closing drapes, trying to find ways to get this electricity bill down. I do not understand how our bill has doubled.

My PGE bill is coming in at 120 a month. What is up with that? It used to be 40 to 70. You'd think that we had a Las Vegas Style sign in the front. We are a little curious. Same company, different town, smaller house even. One story instead of 3. Huh.

Our heating bill is scraping 200 a month. With those kinds of benjamins, we should be walking around in our underpants with the heat cranked to 80. We aren't. I wear sweaters and we never even hit 70 degrees. In fact, the heat stays off most of the day.

It's enough to make an environmentalist out of me. What can we do though? Short of dropping 20 K for a high efficiency heater and new vinyl windows (which we are discussing).

Is what we pay for utilities a big secret? Can we talk about this? Or is it boring to everyone except for me?

Are you paying this much?
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2 comments:

Glen Alan Woods said...

They had an announced rate increase. The rates were increased by an average of 0.9% according to their documentation. It doesn't help that it happened in the middle of winter with cold weather to make for an extra large increase all at once. My bill isn't as high as yours, but I noticed it right away. My solution is to bundle up and only use the lights I actually need. :)

7:04 AM
HappyChyck said...

Utilities cost have been my obsession since I moved to LV. And now, I don't have a sign in front of my house. When I moved to an 30 year-old house last summer, the power bill crippled me one month. It was $300! I got that down to a more reasonable $120 or so (You're hot? Drink more water!), but now the gas bill to heat this drafty house is doing me in. We put plastic on all the windows and covered the drafty French doors with a stylish blanket and some thumbtacks. You'd think we lived in Minnesota! In the summer it's very little clothing, and in the winter it's all the clothing you can find. Glad to know I'm not the only one stressed out by utilities.

3:18 PM

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